1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to boating. Particularly, the present invention relates to personal boats. More particularly, the present invention relates to personal paddle boat water drainage devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One and two person paddle boats are typically known in the art as, and for purposes of the present invention are defined as, canoes, kayaks and the like. Canoes have generally been made of wood, paper, metal, fiberglass, or other man-made composites. Kayaks have generally been made of flexible materials, foldable materials, inflatable materials, plastic, fiberglass, or other manmade composites. Solo kayaks and canoes seat one person. Tandem kayaks and canoes seat two persons.
Canoes and kayaks come in many lengths and widths and hull shapes defined for needs specific to differing uses. Canoes generally have sides that rise separately upward from a lowest point in the water to form the hull as an inner cavity that floats. A seat is usually located within this hull. A boater can sit on the seat in an upright position with knees bent as if sitting on a chair, be it a very small chair. A canoe may have portions with upper coverings, called decks, at its front (the bow), or at its rear (the stern), or at both locations.
Kayaks, in contrast to canoes, have a shallow hull that displaces less water and has a lower profile than the hull of a canoe. The inner cavity of a kayak usually has a full deck that aids in keeping water out, especially since the lower profile is more likely to be swamped in rough water. An oval or round cockpit hole in the deck of the kayak allows the kayaker to enter the kayak and sit down. A kayaker usually sits on a seat positioned on the bottom of the kayak with the kayaker's legs extended out in front and the kayaker's feet resting on foot rests.
When a solo or tandem paddle boater paddles in turbulent water, the waves can simultaneously be thrilling and dangerous. Rougher waves can come over the sides of the boat and completely overturn the boat all at once. When a paddle boat has completely turned over and the boater or boaters have been ejected, these boaters preferably choose to drag their boat to shore if the shore is close enough as this is easier to do than trying to drain the paddle boat and re-enter the drained paddle boat from the water. But, if the body of water is large and enclosed, such as a lake, or if the boater or boaters are boating along the seacoast, reaching the shoreline may not be feasible.
Kayaks are particularly dangerous in rough water as they are more likely to overturn. When a solo kayaker has been overturned, he may be able to perform a maneuver with just his body and his paddle known as a roll. In a roll, the kayaker stays in the cockpit while underwater and, by generating torque about the long axis of the kayak, forces the kayak upright by using his paddles and his body.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,248 (Blachford, 1994) discloses a solo kayak righting apparatus and method for reducing the skill required of a paddler to right a capsized kayak without exiting it. In broad terms, the paddler is provided with a simple and rapid means of creating a buoyant force to one side of the capsized kayak, which can be used to produce an amount of torque for righting the kayak. The apparatus is an inflatable flotation device that is held in place on the deck of the kayak and is provided with a handle. Upon capsizing, the paddler grasps and pulls the handle, whereupon the flotation element is released from its securing container and automatically inflated from compressed gas cartridges. The paddler can then lean on the handle and attached flotation element to right the kayak without exiting it.
The roll maneuver is unreliable because it is not often practiced in capsizing conditions or under differing packed kayak loads or using different paddles. If the solo kayaker fails at a roll, he or she must exit the kayak while underwater, drain the kayak while in the water, and then re-enter the kayak from the water. Draining the kayak of water while the kayaker is in the water is an extremely difficult if not impossible task regardless of the experience of the kayaker.
Roll maneuvers are not possible in a tandem kayak or in any type of canoe. The tandem kayak is too long and requires too much torque and common coordination between two kayakers for a roll maneuver to be successful. Canoes do not have an encapsulated compartment for roll maneuvers to be possible. If a tandem kayak or any canoe is overturned, these boaters need to drain the paddle boat of water, and then re-enter the paddle boat from the water. Devices have been developed to bail a filled watercraft as well as to help a kayaker get out of the water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,062 (Trabka, 1995) discloses a rapid bailing device. The bailing device is used with a watercraft having a hull adapted to sit in a body of water and having a deck normally above a waterline defined by the body of water and formed centrally with a cockpit. The bailing device has a pair of inflatable flexible enclosures of a volume sufficient to support the watercraft out of the water when the enclosures are inflated. The enclosures are attached to the deck above the waterline to either side of the cockpit and a tube interconnects the enclosures so that air can pass through the tube between them. The enclosures can be inflated with air while they are attached to the deck. When thus inflated with the craft in the water, the watercraft can be inverted and supported on the inflated enclosures to drain water from the cockpit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,369 (Ingram, 1996) discloses a kayak safety buoyancy stirrup. The kayak safety buoyancy stirrup consists of an adjustable stirrup and an inflatable buoyancy bag flexibly attached to the deck of a kayak. The buoyancy stirrup is carried on the deck of the kayak and permits immediate deployment by a kayaker in the water, on either side of the kayak. The buoyancy stirrup has sufficient buoyancy to allow a disabled kayaker to step out of the water immediately to prevent hypothermia and lie across the device and the kayak deck in extreme emergencies. With a foot in the stirrup and hands and arms entwined in kayak deck rigging, the device helps prevent the kayaker from falling into cold water again. The inflatable buoyancy bag has an air-tight closure mechanism to permit stowage of bulky, lightweight items. Pouches containing safety equipment such as kayak safety sponsons may be attached to the bag to organize and prevent forgetting of vital safety equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,343,562 B1 (Ingram, 2002) discloses canoe and kayak mid-point sponsons that act as safety ballasts by stabilizing the flooded canoe or kayak until it can get to shore or to a rescue boat. The canoe and kayak mid-point sponsons attach to the canoe or kayak only at the mid-point of the sponsons, to enable the sponsons to rotate around the midpoints in order to reduce drag in waves and simplify attachment and detachment to the canoe or kayak. The mid-point sponsons permit much greater buoyancy volume than any other type of sponson, without interfering with normal paddling to safety. They are attached to any canoe or kayak by material such as only one adjustable strap and two clips, extending to kayak deck fittings adjacent the cockpit or a canoe middle thwart, in such a manner as to facilitate normal padding of the stabilized craft in life threatening emergencies. The mid-point sponsons can be solid buoyant material, waterproof and airtight stowage bags containing bulky lightweight items such as sleeping bags, orally inflatable sponson floats, and gas cartridge inflatable sponson floats. A particular feature is permanent or semi-permanent attachment to the hull above the waterline to eliminate drag unless inflated, in which case the inflated sponsons are forced to immerse in the water. When not inflated each midpoint sponson would be neatly stowed in a small and rescue-emergency marked stowage bag or covering that holds sponsons upward from the waterline. Such an arrangement ensures that the sponsons rest sleekly and unobtrusively along the hull side when not deployed.
Each of the prior art devices has disadvantages or drawbacks. The Trabka bailing device assists with rapid boat drainage by a boater or boaters in the water but does not assist those boaters in the water with re-entering the boat after draining. The Ingram safety buoyancy stirrup assists the boater in crisis to get partially out of the water but does not assist the boater in draining water from his boat or to fully re-enter his boat. The Ingram mid-point safety sponsons assist the boater in getting back into the boat from the water and then in keeping the water-filled boat stable and afloat until the boater can get to shore but does not allow for easy drainage of the boat.
Therefore, what is needed is a water removal system that assists capsized boaters in the water with draining their waterlogged paddle boat while keeping the boat afloat. What is also needed is a water removal system that assists capsized boaters in re-entering the boat from the water.